Editor’s note: Assistant Editor Jerry Lindsey took the photo of Wes Haan speaking, on Monday, May 29, 2023. Click here to read the Memorial Day feature including parade pictures. The Editor photographed the Haan family military boots and cap. The latter shows the 1st Cavalry Division insignia of Doug Haan.
Good morning. My name is Wesley Haan. I am a former Morrison resident, and I am honored to be here with you today. This is hallowed ground, as local heroes are eternally laid to rest here in the hills of Grove Hill Cemetery.
Over the next few minutes I will explain the origins of Gold Star Families Incorporated. I will share with you some local family history….We will conclude with reading the names of those Morrison residents that made the ultimate sacrifice.
The origin of what would become Gold Star Families started with a simple
accessory: a black armband with a gilt star. During World War I, family members would wear these arm bands to represent a loved one who had died in the war. The stars would later find their way to being displayed on banners, that were hung in windows or front doors. Banners with blue stars were hung to represent immediate family members who were serving. The stars symbolized the people
that were supposed to be home, but were missing from the dinner table. If a family member died during their service, the blue star would be replaced with a gold one.
Grace Seibold was one of these mothers with a gold star in her window. Her son, 23-year-old George Seibold, volunteered to be an Aviator and was sent to England in 1917 as part of the British Royal Flying Corps. Grace and George had regularly exchanged letters–until she suddenly stopped hearing from him. Nevertheless, she held out hope. In 1918, she received his personal belongings and confirmation of his death. George’s body was never identified. Grace then used her time and grief to reach out to other mothers trying to cope with similar losses. Twenty-five of these women banded together in 1928 to create American Gold Star Mothers, Incorporated–a group that still exists today–to honor their children, heal together, and support veterans and the Nation.
[Here is] some local and family history. My Uncle Douglas John Haan, was born in rural Morrison on October 17, 1947, to John and Esther Haan. He was born into a family of eight, with four brothers and one sister. He attended rural single-room schools and graduated from Morrison High School with the class of 1967. Doug played Basketball and was in a Bowling league; he enjoyed hunting and fast cars. He began dating Vickie Rick in the summer of 1967, and they got engaged on Christmas of that year. In May of 1968 Doug was drafted into the United States Army. He took Basic [training] and AIT at Fort Polk, LA. Doug was on leave after Basic when he married his bride-to-be on September 21, 1968. On October 6, Doug left out of Fort Ord, CA, for An Khe Vietnam. Once “in country,” he was assigned to Charlie Company 2\5th 1st Cavalry Division Airmobile. Doug wrote home often and spoke of combat assaults, searching villages, rubber plantations, securing bridges, and search-and-destroy missions. He turned 21 on October 17.
In November 1968, Doug’s unit was tasked with providing a blocking force to protect Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam. This included infiltrating the famed Ho Chi Minh trail. On December 20, 1968, the 3rd platoon of Doug’s unit was ambushed while on an operation in Binh Long Province, near the Cambodian border. The 2nd platoon, of which Doug was a part, was attempting to retrieve the dead and wounded from 3rd platoon, when he was struck and killed by small arms fire. Doug lost his life trying to save his fellow soldiers. Doug’s family was notified that he was missing in action; on December 24, Christmas Eve, they were informed via telegram that he was killed in action. Doug is remembered fondly by all that knew him; Pat Hanson recalled a profound sadness in the Morrison community at the time of his death. His wife, Vickie, remembers Doug as being good natured and adventuresome, and that he enjoyed life.
The following is an entry from a journal of Doug’s mother. “Miss you so, my darling, can’t hardly stand it; still seems so untrue. I keep looking for you to come home in October when your year is up over there. Seems so unfair, but maybe someday I’ll understand why this had to be. But for now I feel only half alive, part of me is still with you. Miss you more with every day that passes by. Love you so, Mom.”
Doug’s older brother Roger, who was a Vietnam combat veteran, started a Memorial Day tradition. It consisted of wearing Doug’s Army boots from basic training, in the Morrison Memorial Day parade. Sadly Roger passed away in 2016 of cancer, from complications due to Agent Orange exposure. In 2017 my dad, Craig Haan, Doug’s youngest brother, picked up where Roger left off. He wore Doug’s boots until Dad passed away in 2021. Today, in keeping tradition, I am wearing the boots in honor and in loving memory of Doug, Roger, and my dad, Craig Haan. It is my hope that my son, Spencer Haan, will carry on this tradition, when I am no longer able.
In 2014 I attended a reunion of my Uncle Doug’s Army unit. There, my mom, dad, and I got to meet several people that served in the same platoon and squad as Doug. James “Tree” Machin, James Menicucci, and Richard “Doc” Bovie all said that, there is not a day that goes by, that they don’t think of Doug and wonder, “Why him, and not me?” While at that military reunion, I was asked by veteran Don Jensen, “You are a little young to [have been] in Vietnam weren’t you?” I wasn’t sure what he meant by that, and it took me a minute….I realized that he was asking what I was doing at a military reunion amongst a fraternity of Vietnam combat veterans. My response to him, and the reason that I am here today, is that I am here to honor not only the memory of my uncle, Doug Haan, but to all men and women of the Armed Forces that gave their lives in the line of duty for this great Nation. Unfortunately this tragic story is not unique to my family.
There are at least a few other Gold Star Families present today. In World War II, Army paratrooper Andrew Devries was killed in action in 1945. He left behind a widow and two young children, Jane, then 3, and Jim, age 1. Becky Bruins’s family is related to another World War II veteran killed in action, George F. Albers, Jr. A member of, and pillar in, our community, Jim Prombo, lost an older brother in Vietnam, Marine John Anthony Prombo. Mr. Prombo left a remembrance on the wall of faces stating, “John was a fine brother, in whose shadow I was, and am still, proud to walk.”
Most of those who laid down their lives for their Country never married, never got to have a child or a grandchild, never got to grow old, and thus they remain forever young. We must carry on in loving memory and be proud of our loved ones…so they are not forgotten.
I would like to conclude today by reading the names of those from Morrison that made the ultimate sacrifice.
World War I
ALBERT ANGELL
MICHAEL F. BAGLEY
JOHN GRIDLEY, JR.
ALFRED HIDDLESON
WILLIAM A. JANSMA
FRED JENKS
ARTIE C. MENSCH
GEORGE H. NEWENDYKE
JACOB H. NEWENDYKE
WILLIAM RHODE
ERVIN SIEFKEN
EDWARD SNYDER
ANDREW SWANSON
SIMON VOSS
SAMUAL ZOOK.
World War II
GEORGE F. ALBERS, JR.
HAROLD BUIKEMA
BOBBIE COBLENTZ
GERALD H. COOPER
ANDREW DEVRIES
JACK HAMILTON
JAMES HAWK
FRANK LAWTON
JAMES R. LUDENS
MARVIN G. MYERS
ROBERT M. RITCHIE
BURDETTE SCHROEDER
MERRILL SHEETS
KENNETH M. SNYDER.
Vietnam
HARRY ARLO AMESBURY, JR.
MICHAEL DENNIS BRIGHTMAN
DOUGLAS JOHN HAAN
LAWRENCE EDWARD HOWARD
RICHARD K. JOHNSON.